Borsalino

This paradigmatically 1970's tongue-in-cheek Gallic comedy about the rise and rise of two gangsters in Marseille during the 1930s was a big hit in its time, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, one-time Nouvelle Vague alumni, being France's biggest box-office stars of the day .

With a classic soundtrack by Claude Bolling, the film has its moments and the costume and décor are splendid but now that we are less enamoured of the Deco style or its stars, its self-conscious artifice borders on the twee.  

FYI: It was followed by a less successful sequel, Borsalina et Cie / Borsalina and Co (1974), whilst Delon and Belmondo were reunited in 1998 in the entertaining and not dis-similar Patrice Leconte action comedy, Half A Chance / Une Chance Sur Deux.

 

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